Jazz Express - The Songs of Diana Ross (1992)

So, Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show, as did Kevin Eubanks but only for a couple of months. After the drama surrounding the Tonight Show shuffle and a desire to spend more time with family, Kevin stepped down as Jay's bandleader. Industry veteran Rickey Minor and his TV Band (hired away from their gig as the American Idol band) took the stage in May 2010. Minor brought with him his television professionalism and complemented Jay by playing energetic pop songs and classics that would reinvigorate the audience during breaks in the recording. He started his career as a bassist, playing in groups and in sessions, and notably joined Whitney Houston's band before becoming her musical director. That job title would become his career as he worked with artists across the pop landscape and on shows like American Idol and The Oscars. In the middle of working for Whitney, he recorded with Jazz Express on their debut album The Songs of Diana Ross released in 1992 by the Japanese label Sound Design Records.

There's not much information out there about Jazz Express—probably because there's not much history. They were a studio band that recorded a series of smooth jazz albums with each album focusing on covering hits by a particular artist. They released five albums in 1992 alone and the "first" release I chose—I couldn't find exact release dates—is only based on the earliest catalogue number (SDCH-1016.) Rather than a band with a vision, Jazz Express looks like and sounds like and jazzes like a session job.

The first three songs are dominated by the soothing sax sounds of Michael Paulo. His saxophone's velvet texture is pillowed with organ chords, shimmering cymbals and a touch of chimes in the opening seconds of "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" and creates that cozy sound perfect for when you're contemplating the wonderful end to a romantic date (in the 80s,) enjoying a bubblebath surrounded by scented candles (in a cheeky Old Spice commercial,) or on hold waiting for your doggy daycare's customer service representative (still.) But then the album of Diana Ross covers drops a couple players favoring a smaller combo. Michael Paulo isn't on the rest of the album and neither is guitarist Buzzy Feiten. The main players left are Rickey Minor, drummer Ricky Lawson and pianist Neil Larsen. Neil Larsen punches up the remaining songs by speeding up the tempo, introducing tension, and allowing the two Rick(e)y's larger roles including a nifty drum solo on "Stop! In the Name of Love" and more melodic and prominent lines from Minor. These tracks veer away from the programmed smooth jazz, though still smooth and perfect for background at a convenience store, to a style with a little more forward motion...though not quite enough to be invigorating.

Here is the discography surrounding Jazz Express's debut album:

The Songs of Diana Ross

The Tonight Show Theme

Kevin Eubanks Discusses His Decision to Leave The Tonight Show

Rickey Minor Leaves American Idol

Pass the Headphones!!

Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers - It's OK To...Do Stuff (2012)

"Be Yourself...Unless" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Steven Page

When Conan O'Brien shifted to Tonight, he hired veteran Daily Show writer Rob Kutner. As a writer, Kutner extended his output beyond just monologues. He's written books, web series, panel comics, graphic novels and...comedy albums. Teaming up with frequent collaborators the Levinson Brothers (Stephen and Joel Moss) and recruiting a cast of famous friends, he released It's OK To...Do Stuff in 2012 through Rooftop Comedy Productions.

The short album was recorded and released to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of Marlo Thomas (and Friends') Free to Be...You and Me. A seminal children's album, TV Special and book, Thomas brought together musicians, actors and comedians to record a series of songs, sketches, poems and stories that challenged typical gender norms in both an earnest and subversively comic fashion. Kutner and the Levinsons couldn't just write a "comedy" version of Free to Be because it was already funny, and they didn't want to simply lampoon Thomas's feminist efforts. Instead, they landed on a formula to poke fun at the beloved classic by writing songs that were a bit too adult to have made the original's cut.

Joel Moss Levinson handles the music and the comedy is a team effort. Their songs speak to those who grew up on Thomas's lessons but then, like on "Divorce Makes a Family Twice as Big," got a dose of reality and a bit of cynicism from a world still trying to live up to her ideals. "Divorce" is the comic stand-out on a listenable Side A, but despite base material ripe for satire, Kutner and the Levinsons run out of steam quickly and close out the album with some comic clunkers, especially the closing "Everyone's Equally" that hasn't faith in the people of the world nor any sense of comic rhythm.

The wrangled stars that bring the album to life include musicians Steven Page of The Barenaked Ladies, Jane Wiedlen of The Go-Go's and comedians Samantha Bee, Wyatt Cenac, and James Urbaniak among many other of Rob Kutner's co-workers and friends. Unfortunately, they lack the charisma to better sell the material. Not like there was enough to work with, most of the big names only get a single line. 

The album is unfortunately too song-forward and doesn't try for the balance of poetry, skits and stories that mixes so well on Free to Be. The exception is the two comedy sketches "Girl Meets Boy" and "Girl Meets Droid" which are comic extensions to the wonderful Mel Brooks/Marlo Thomas sketch "Boy Meets Girl." Like the rest of the album, the sketches are shadows of the original material. It's OK To...Do Stuff is a fun concept and devoted to the original, but it also feels rushed and needed more attention for it to be anything more than a few laughs...

But if you wanted any more proof that Rob Kutner and tbe Levinsons' hearts were in the right place, all proceeds from the record were donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a favorite charity of Marlo Thomas.

Note: Conan O'Brien's long-time Late Night and Tonight Show and Conan sidekick, Andy Richter, has a role on the song/sketch "Friends of Friends." Making this Tour stop was mostly an excuse to get Richter, by whatever means, into this ongoing Tonight Show history. It was either this or the All Hail King Julien soundtrack just for the song "I Love Your Toes" where Andy sings as the character Mort. After a few listens of that song: I, too, wish I were mort.

Here is the discography surrounding Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers' debut album:

It's OK To...Do Stuff

"It's OK to Do Stuff" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Jane Wiedlin

"Girl Meets Boy/Droid" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Fred Willard, Lizzy Caplan and Eugene Mirman

"Divorce Makes a Family Twice as Big" by Rob Kutner and the Levinson Brothers featuring Colin Hanks and Kimmy Gatewood

Pass the Headphones!!

Blackstone - Blackstone (1971)

"Love, Love, Love" by Blackstone

When Conan O'Brien took over The Tonight Show, he brought with him his Late Night band The Max Weinberg 7, rechristened Max Weinberg and The Tonight Show Band. Famously, Max was an erstwhile member of the E Street Band when Conan offered him the job as Late Night bandleader. He stayed loyal to Conan even when The Boss reformed E Street in 1999 and he had to balance his Late Night duties amidst touring. Before Max originally joined Springsteen in the mid-70s, he had played in a few other college and Jersey bands and first recorded his drumming as a member of the short-lived five-piece, Blackstone. The eponymous Blackstone came out in 1971 on Epic Records.

The single "Love, Love, Love" leads off the album with a debt to Led Zeppelin. The scream-singing vocals, dubious lyrics, a clever bass and emphatic drumming are all patterned on the hard rock quartet. The simple guitar and unambitious production are the only elements that aren't. There's an obvious difference in virtuosity as each band member either pales in comparison to or comes close to their musical models. Is it sacrilege to say that the young Max Weinberg nearly gives John Bonham a run for his money? By maximizing every fill, Max claims the song for his own. Only the solo gives away that he's still a click behind Bonham as it doesn't match the creativity of his fills. Of course, the song and the band couldn't just settle for being a less-than Zeppelin dupe, so that's why you add a keyboard (especially if you're also a fan of The Zombies.)

Only about a third of the songs scattered throughout Blackstone owes so much to Zeppelin. The rest of the tracks are a flowery, pop psychedelia dominated by lead singer Tom Flynn. The songs feel dated even though they're only two years removed from the late-sixties they evoke, while also harkening to the dim future of derivative corporate rock. If it's not clear already, the album lacks any identity or style of its own and suffers the unfortunate fate of being so unremarkable to be easily forgettable...except for the drumming.

Here is the discography for Blackstone:

Blackstone

Love, Love, Love (1971 single)

"Thinking" by Blackstone

Max Weinberg Leaves Late Night with Conan O'Brien for the First Time

The Max Weinberg 7 Are in a Groove

Max Weinberg Returns to Conan

Pass the Headphones!!

Conan O'Brien - Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011)

"Polk Salad Annie" by Conan O'Brien

In 1993, Conan O'Brien took over the chair from David Letterman on Late Night, the show that followed The Tonight Show into the next day. After ten years of building a loyal viewership in the early hours of the weekdays, Conan's new contract set forth a path for him to take over Tonight in 2009 as NBC didn't want to lose him to another network. When it came time for the hosting transition, NBC couldn't lose Leno to another network either because of their contract with him. So, they programmed Leno a primetime slot leading into the local news before then airing The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

Unlike Leno, Conan never really did stand up. He was President of the Harvard Lampoon, wrote for SNL and wrote some of the best and most iconic Simpsons episodes. From that and a fateful audition, Conan replaced David Letterman on Late Night as a complete unknown. He had never held such a large stage for a captive audience, but coworkers and friends said that he would captivate any writers' room he was in. Conan quickly proved to be a natural on stage. His show had more in common with the "anything goes that gets laughs" antics of Steve Allen and thus was a more anarchic version of Late Night than Letterman's wry subversion or Leno's workman-like production on The Tonight Show.

The abysmal ratings of Leno's new show caused an uproar amongst the local affiliates, and the slow start to Conan's ratings gave NBC executives an out. They had the host who was a guaranteed #1 in the late night ratings still on the payroll and wanted to dump two underperforming shows begat from their contractual snafus. The proposed solution was to shift the time slots. The Jay Leno Show, which had started at 2200 EST would now start after the news at 2335...the traditional starting time for The Tonight Show. The Tonight Show would then be pushed later and begin airing after midnight. Conan could either accept the changes or be forced out. (As previously hinted, Dick Cavett wrote a blog entry on the debacle and didn't side with either host but rather criticized the boneheaded contracts NBC drew up and wondered at the "wisdom" of writing Leno's planned departure while he was still at the peak of his popularity.)

Conan O'Brien exited NBC and his contract for a large but undisclosed sum. In the settlement, he could not appear on television, radio or the internet for six months after leaving The Tonight Show. So, Conan went on a grievance tour, or rather a concert tour, named The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour with the proceeds going to his laid off crew while he looked for a new home on television. With members of his erstwhile Tonight Show Band and some loyal staff, Conan performed over 40 shows across the United States playing music and comedy to sellout crowds. The tour was chronicled in the documentary Conan O'Brien Can't Stop directed by Rodman Flender. An original soundtrack for the film, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, was released in 2011 on Lakeshore Records.

The album is a curated set list of the best songs Conan performed on the Tour. Even without the visuals, the audio is clear evidence that Conan gives the audience everything he has. The energy never falters but the exhaustion becomes audible, and banter about needing to go to the hospital by the end of a concert comes off as only half joking. Conan plays guitar and sings better than you'd expect, but it's the clever set list and The Legally Prohibited Band that helps Conan pull off the variety show concert. A learned sense for what the audience will respond to makes a playlist of rockabilly and Americana classics and allows Conan to go between impersonation, at times channeling Elvis, Chuck Berry or The Big Bopper, and his own pure energy (with a dash of Allan Sherman.)

Unfortunately, the album is just the concert's songs. It's a missed opportunity that the record is simply a soundtrack and not a live album that includes the monologues, guest artists and encores (and the Live at Third Man record is not that.) Part of what made the tour so popular and necessary was that the concert experience (monologue and skits included) allowed Conan to further air his grievances to an audience all too willing to support him and revel in a shared spite towards television executives. The Band's beloved "The Weight" is the album's centerpiece. It's a chance for Conan to take a little break during the concert and highlight the talents of his band, and although Conan would never allow it, voices the audience's desire to take some of that weight themselves from off of his shoulders.

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is fun and engaging but probably more memorable as a live experience. As an intermission to his TV career, it is further proof that Conan has the talent and inspiration to be a great entertainer and a great comedian in any medium, and it couldn't be more apparent that, in another time, he would've made a decent disc jockey turned regional rockabilly artist.

Here is the discography surrounding Conan O'Brien's debut album:

And They Call Me Mad? (2010 single)

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop

Live at Third Man (2011 live album)

"The Weight" by Conan O'Brien and The Legally Prohibited Band

"And They Call Me Mad?" by Conan O'Brien

Late Night's All Kids Audience Show

Andy's Little Sister Stacy

Conan's Last Tonight Show Monologue

Conan Interviews Steve Allen

Conan & John Mayer Sing a Lullaby

Guest David Letterman on Late Night

David Letterman on Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien on The Late Show with David Letterman

Pass the Headphones!!

Kevin Eubanks - Guitarist (1983)

"Untitled Shapes" by Kevin Eubanks

After three years, Branford Marsalis quit as Tonight Show bandleader partially due to frustration with the non-musical expectations that went with the job: forced repartee, requisite laughter at unfunny jokes, and host ass-kissing (as he put it.) Kevin Eubanks, guitarist with the band since Leno's start and composer of its closing theme "Kevin's Country," got the promotion to bandleader in 1995. He was more comfortable in the role than his predecessor and had better chemistry with Leno. As bandleader, he was also more attune to the attentions and expectations of the audience. Branford wasn't as amenable to the audience nor to the brass. His exit, then Eubanks's literal "swearing in"—a skit which hit upon tardiness, non-responsiveness to jokes, and the playing of obscure music—inadvertently revealed the rough dynamic Kevin had to follow.

Kevin and Branford had previously toured with the Grateful Dead as Branford Marsalis and The X-Men. Drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts and bassist Robert Hurst III rounded out the quartet and, with Kevin, supposedly pushed Branford into taking the Tonight Show job after his initial refusal. Both bandleaders go even further back to the near-beginning of their careers. Kevin (and his brother Robin) played alongside Wynton and Branford as members of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. They toured Europe with Blakey in 1980 and set the experience to wax on the album Live at Montreux and Northsea. Kevin played with other luminaries (Roy Haynes, Dave Holland, etc.) in New York City before releasing his debut album Guitarist in 1983 on the sub-label Elektra Musician.

Like Fathers & Sons, Guitarist is a family affair. Kevin is joined sporadically by his brother Robin (trombone) and his cousins David (guitar, bass, the only other musician to play on all eight tracks) and Charles (piano.) And although Kevin had gotten his start with straight-ahead jazz, he seems more amenable than the Marsalis family to fusion as he plays the electric guitar on most of the album's tracks. The style of the music still follows along straight-ahead expectations, but does incorporate a bit of funk on Side B opener "Urban Heat." The album opens and closes with the spotlight on Kevin accompanied only by veteran David Eubanks playing rhythm guitar on the Spanish-inspired "The Novice Bounce" and bass on the Kind of Blue track "Blue in Green."

As the guitarist goes, so goes Guitarist, and neither take you very far. As much as Kevin shows his technique on the opener, his solos can be frustrating. On "Inner-Vision," he plays from thought to thought without variety or story, and the following track "Yesterdays," has Kevin playing a solo that sounds out-of-step, bloated and monotonous in an arrangement that just as readily befuddles. The Side A closer, Thelonious Monk's "Evidence" starts faithfully with the guitar in the Monk role, before this version drops the concept of the composition for a bouncy middle section of generic solos and a very sickly sounding trombone/bass combo at its heart. Only veteran drummer Roy Haynes (playing on just this track,) who recorded the song with Monk in 1958, seems to know how to bring out the song's immediacy, humor and eclectic joy.

Side B recharges the album with the aforementioned, breakneck "Urban Heat" before channeling Wes Montgomery in another Eubanks/Eubanks duet for guitar and bass, which starts devotedly and ends simplistically. "Untitled Shapes" is the last Kevin Eubanks composition on the record and his best one. His performance is vibrant, inventive and directional and the rest of the rhythm section takes that clarity and, for a first in any of the ensemble arrangements, can creatively react and support the titular guitarist. Kevin passes the solo to his cousin Charles on piano. Charles Eubanks plays a brightness and spontaneity into the track that makes you wish he could do the same for the rest of the album. You just wish Kevin knew how to end a song; this one, like many of the other originals, repeats itself one too many times before petering out into the closer where it's just Kevin again—a young guitarist.

Here is the discography surrounding Kevin Eubanks's debut album:

Guitarist

"Urban Heat" by Kevin Eubanks

"Alfie" by Kevin Eubanks on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Pass the Headphones!!

Fathers and Sons - Fathers & Sons (1982)

"Twelve's It" by Fathers and Sons

A new Tonight Show host means a new Tonight Show Band, and Jay Leno recruited a hesitant Branford Marsalis to lead an overdue overhaul. Signing on after turning down the job at first, Marsalis made good on a promise from Leno: that he could play "whatever he wanted to play." Jazz progressed quite a bit from the Big Band sound the Tonight Show had been playing for nearly 40 years, and Marsalis used his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz to show where the genre was now and where it had been to get there. Branford's reverence for jazz history is a family affair that stems from pater familias and jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis. Along with brother Wynton Marsalis, the three were Side A on the album Fathers & Sons released in 1982 on Columbia Records.

Led in part by the Marsalis family (particularly Wynton,) the 1980s saw a resurgence in straight-ahead jazz. The sub-genre got its start two decades earlier as a reaction to the opening avenues of free jazz and jazz fusion. The latter adopted the electrification of a traditionally acoustic genre while combining with the pop of the era (rock, funk, R&B,) while the former challenged the very foundations of jazz itself. Straight-ahead became from artists dubious of these new and potentially destructive developments. Exactly what it delivered isn't original but more a collation of the established sub-genres and forms of jazz up until, essentially, the last explorations of John Coltrane. When the Marsalis brothers hit the scene, they became heralds (alongside jazz critic Stanley Crouch who wrote the liner notes for Fathers & Sons) of straight-ahead jazz or the homophonic "neo-bop."

Besides the basic tenets of straight-ahead jazz (a sub-genre akin to a setlist where every song is a different mixture of older jazz sub-genres,) neo-bop is also defined extra-musically in its concern for the elevation of jazz in popular, scholarly and historic tastes (think "America's classical music.") It is buttoned up, drug-free, upper middle class. Branford Marsalis playing for The Tonight Show or Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Crouch narrating Ken Burns's Jazz documentary made them (biased) jazz spokespeople to mass audiences. The reverence for the past makes it fitting that one of the earliest neo-bop recordings would be collaborations between jazz fathers and their jazz sons. Side A has Ellis Marsalis (piano) leading Branford (tenor sax,) Wynton (trumpet,) Charles Fambrough (acoustic bass,) and James Black (drums.) Side B is another session with Von Freeman (tenor sax) leading his son Chico Freeman (tenor sax,) Cecil McBee (acoustic bass,) Kenny Barron (piano,) and Jack DeJohnette (drums.)

Both Sides A and B start off with egalitarian manifestos: Ellis Marsalis's hard bop "Twelve's It" and Von Freeman's swinging "Jug Ain't Gone." The combos are clear and practiced and each player takes a solo (but for Charles Fambrough who can't go without notice anyway.) The jazz is fun and welcoming and a throwback, seemingly perfected. The sons get their chance to shine. Branford and Wynton play at sibling bickering on "A Joy Forever" and Chico Freeman takes the album its furthest down the path towards free jazz ("Time Marches On") with a rhythm section that has been there before. (Note: I don't know enough about Von and Chico Freeman to declare the difference between their tenor sax styles, but I'm guessing that Von plays a cooler sax to Chico's more staccato and wailing one.) Ellis and Von are veteran jazz educators and their solos casually bring in disparate influences and color that show how inventive neo-bop can be. The only two songs not written by the "fathers" are each side's closing numbers: Ellis Marsalis, alone, plays Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" and Chico Freeman composes a toast in "Tribute to Our Fathers." The sons make way for their fathers.

The overall product and the real effect of neo-bop at large is a jazz reclamation project. Where jazz in the popular consciousness had been alienated by free jazz or numbed by smooth jazz, the standard bearers of a "classical" form of jazz, through their polished Scholasticism, reminded listeners what made the music the dynamic and revolutionary sound of the first half of the 20th Century. Even if the Marsalis and Freeman families aren't writing the future of jazz, they do their part to underline its past.

Here is Fathers and Sons complete discography:

Fathers & Sons

"Rib Tip Johnson" by the Tonight Show Band

(Also, be sure to revisit Leno's first episode in the last entry for a great first performance by Branford and the Tonight Show Band.)

"Tribute to Our Fathers" by Fathers and Sons

Pass the Headphones!!

Jay Leno - Leading with My Chin (1996)

Leading with My Chin by Jay Leno

Johnny Carson survived the workload The Tonight Show required by negotiating his contract to share that load with other hosts. Guest hosts were a weekly expectation, and for the last six years of Carson's tenure, the regular guest host was Jay Leno. With Carson's retirement after 30 years hosting Tonight, NBC chose Leno (famously picked over Late Night host and critical darling David Letterman) to take over the late night institution. Jay Leno has not released a comedy album but did record an audiobook of his 1996 memoir Leading with My Chin published by HarperCollins's HarperAudio. (The book was published by the imprint HarperTorch.)

Jay Leno is adamant that he will never film a comedy special. As a lifetime stand-up road warrior, the potential of reaching millions and getting pennies in return has less value than charging full price from roomfuls of ordinary folks across America. And why give away material to audiences before performing it for them live? That practical mindset is probably why he never released a comedy album either. The closest he came to "giving away" material was through his memoir which he writes (and reads) as a string of humorous stories. They are delivered as if for the hundredth time with the embellishment you'd expect from a story a hundred times told. And by the hundred and first, the punchline still isn't good enough for the act. It's a longer form of storytelling comedy that Leno isn't particularly adept at, and he compensates—in the reading—with silly (unfunny) voices, comic overreactions to make dung heaps out of mole hills, and generally relying on his natural crutch of "louder is funnier."

Half the book is an ode to his parents. He lovingly tells stories about his mother and father and gives performance to their own more subtle and intrapersonal senses of humor. These stories and jokes clearly have sentimental value to Jay and are probably why he wrote the memoir in the first place. Meanwhile, his own life stories always seem to revolve around the remembrance of failed jokes past. He paints himself as a young, working comic who learned the craft the hard way, in front of hostile audiences while staying in seedy hotels, while also managing to not give away any material of financial value. What Jay Leno gives his parents, he denies himself. He might be able to save his routines for the next town, but what he ends up saving for posterity are just bad stories about bad jokes.

Here is Jay Leno's discography:

Jay Leno (1984 comedy routine on the Comedy Tonight compilation album)

Leading with My Chin

'Twas the Night Before Christmas (2000 reading on the NBC Celebrity Christmas compilation album)

Jay Leno's First Appearance on The Tonight Show

The First Episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Jay Leno Interviews a Presidential Candidate in 1999

Pass the Headphones!!